In North Africa, a fantasia is an exhibition of horsemanship and martial spirit that looks, at first glance, like a synchronized race across a stretch of desert accompanied by shouts and loud cries and concludes with coordinated rifle fire that, if…

In 1798, Napoleon I invaded Egypt, and to feed his troops, bought grain from merchants in Algeria, but he never paid them back. In 1814, the next French government ignored the previous regime's debts until, finally, in 1827, the governor of Algiers…